The T&T To­ba­go Scrap Iron Deal­ers As­so­ci­a­tion is strong­ly con­demn­ing per­sons op­er­at­ing as scrap yards and pur­chas­ing ma­te­r­i­al with­out a Scrap Deal­ers Li­cense.

In a strong­ly word­ed re­lease, the As­so­ci­a­tion stat­ed:

"These per­sons are wreak­ing hav­oc and dis­ar­ray in the in­dus­try and we are ask­ing them to stop im­me­di­ate­ly. Their fail­ure to de­sist will give us no choice but to send their names and lo­ca­tion to the po­lice as we are well aware of the per­sons who are in re­ceipt of the rel­e­vant li­cense."

The re­lease notes:

"The Scrap Met­al pol­i­cy of Trinidad and To­ba­go clear­ly states that 'it is il­le­gal for any per­son to deal in the scrap met­al un­less he/she has ob­tained a li­cense un­der the Old Met­al and Ma­rine Stores Act of 1904'."

The As­so­ci­a­tion al­so is con­cerned about il­le­gal op­er­a­tors pric­ing prac­tices.

"On an­oth­er point there are per­son who are go­ing about, al­so with­out li­cense, in­flat­ing the cost of cat­a­lyst again caus­ing se­ri­ous. short and long term prob­lems for the in­dus­try. Mem­bers are strong­ly dis­cour­aged from sell­ing to those per­sons," the As­so­ci­a­tion's re­lease said.

It added: "We all need to play our part in chang­ing the In­dus­try for the bet­ter and TTSI­DA is very se­ri­ous about fix­ing these is­sues that negate the prop­er growth of the In­dus­try."